I often wonder when games will be reviewed on TV the way movies are featured on various evening news segments or television magazines such as Access Hollywood. If they were, Kojima's latest would yield mixed feelings. My sentiments about Metal Gear Solid 2 are similar to those when I anticipated some kind of Sixth Sense auteurism in Unbreakable, only to get something completely different.

People compare games and movies. Whether this is fair or not is moot by this point. People do it, and it doesn't look like theyre going to stop. The gaming public has decided to view games as an authorative medium in the tradition of cinema.

Capcom is something of an enigma. Like so many of todays profit-driven developers, they shamelessly dilute the market with endless strings of sequels, spin-offs, and outright knock-offs. But occasionally, amidst the hordes of boring Resident Evil and Mega-Man sequels, something compelling emerges.

Theres no denying that the game is often breathtaking to look at. Its rich and expansive environments are quite impressive and go a long way toward making the gaming experience an immersive one. Couple that with a battle system thats both simple enough so you can pick up the controller and begin playing immediately—but still deep enough that youll be working on perfecting combos hours after youve started—and youll see why this games generated the hype and early praise that it did.

I completely agree with Brad's assessment of ICO as art—the game really is that beautiful. You'll have countless moments where you just have to stop and soak all of the scenery in. This sleeper hit of the year is simply too good to be missed.

Although the core concept of the game—race jet-powered bikes on gravity-defying tracks while dueling with other racers—remains unchanged, some remarkably subtle changes (not to mention some not-so-subtle ones) have transformed Extreme G from a mediocre trend-follower to a well executed, exhilarating racer.

When the novelty of the new features wear off, Extreme G III shows the chinks in its armor. Although vast, the environments in the game are rather plain and in many areas, they are downright barren. Admittedly this probably responsible for the silky smooth framerates we praised it for, but more variety in the surroundings would have gone a long way toward giving this game some personality.

Code of Conduct

Comments are subject to approval/deletion based on the following criteria:
1) Treat all users with respect.
2) Post with an open-mind.
3) Do not insult and/or harass users.
4) Do not incite flame wars.
5) Do not troll and/or feed the trolls.
6) No excessive whining and/or complaining.